Eli Manning managed only a garbage-time touchdown pass as the Giants lost 33-14 to the Ravens. / John Munson, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports

BALTIMORE â?? It was a year ago Monday â?? Christmas Eve 2011 in East Rutherford, N.J. â?? when Victor Cruz split cornerbacks Kyle Wilson and Antonio Cromartie, high-stepped over the arms of diving safety Eric Smith and raced down the New York Jets' sideline for a 99-yard touchdown.

It was the play that sparked the New York Giants' Super Bowl run.

It's one they needed this year. And one they couldn't make.

Given time, Cruz one day will realize the magnitude of that play, how it gave the Giants' the lead, how it energized the eventual champions and how it suddenly got every aspect of the team to play so much better.

Sunday was not that day -- not after a 33-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens nudged the Giants (8-7) to the brink of becoming the 14th Super Bowl champion to miss the playoffs the following season, a loss that only helped clarify the impact last year's play had.

"When it happened for us last year, this particular game, the 15th game, we had a spark, we had a really great spark," Coughlin said of a team that was 7-7 and had lost five of six games, a run similar to the four of six this year's team had lost coming into Baltimore. "You want to say it was the Victor Cruz 99-yarder? Whatever it was, it really invigorated our team."

Cruz knows this team needs â?? no, needed â?? such invigoration.

"I agree, I agree," he said. "100%."

This season, there's been no such turning point for the Giants. Not a good one, anyway. Plenty of bad ones, sure, but no moment onto which they could latch to spin things in a positive direction as they also did in 2007 on their way to their first Super Bowl under Coughlin.

They thought they'd had one four weeks ago when they trounced the Green Bay Packers 38-10. Nope, a week later they lost to the Washington Redskins by a point.

They thought they had another one when they hammered the New Orleans Saints 52-27 on Dec. 9. Ha, hardly. Last Sunday, they got smoked by the Atlanta Falcons 34-0.

And this week, well, let's have Jason Pierre-Paul say it.

"We went out there and (urinated) down our legs," the defensive end said.

Give Pierre-Paul credit. He was one of the first players to say enough with the talk about how they'd been in this position before and how they play their best when their backs are against the wall. Sunday's performance was a great example of how that's not always the case and it's not automatic.

"There are a lot of proud guys in that locker room looking to me for answers," Coughlin said. "The answers are not easy ones."

He provided one, though, by basically saying somebody has to make that Cruz-like play.

"You have to earn the confidence. You don't just talk about it," Coughlin said. "Sometimes I get tired of talking, talking, talking. You do have to go on the field, by yourself, 11 of you out there, because everyone else is over here, and accomplish that."

Translation: This team is without that on-field leader, that player willing or able to lift this entire roster.

Justin Tuck wasn't able to do it Sunday. The defensive captain was on the sideline, inactive with a shoulder injury. Defensive tackle Chris Canty tried to make it happen with back-to-back tackles for losses of 2 and 7 yards, but one play later, the battered secondary gave up a 39-yard catch to set up a field goal that made it 17-7 after the Giants had shaken off a terrible start to pull within a touchdown. (Canty then left with a knee injury and didn't return.)

Cruz is trying to do it, but he's getting blanketed and pinballed all over the field by defensive backs trying (unsuccessfully) to knock him out of the game. Last week, it was the Falcons' Chris Hope, who drew a $30,000 fine. This week, Ravens safety Ed Reed whacked Cruz and could be having conversations with the league in regard to a suspension.

Quarterback Eli Manning is attempting to do what he does best, which is play well when it matters most. But he's getting hit harder than Cruz, and more often.

Rookie wide receiver Rueben Randle (43-yard catch) and first-year running back David Wilson (14-yard touchdown run) tried to make it happen, but the youngsters aren't polished enough to handle big workloads. So the onus is on veterans like cornerback Corey Webster, who inexplicably gave up position on an early deep catch by Torrey Smith and allowed Smith and Anquan Boldin (181 yards combined) to run by him all day long.

Make a play. Make like Cruz. Make this a successful season.

That should've been the Giants' mantra. And now, it might be too late.

"That's an example of one play being able to spark and ignite a whole football team," Canty said of Cruz's play last year. "We didn't have that, and that's disappointing."

They're still alive, though even the first part of the scenario to sneak into the postseason (a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday) seems like a stretch at this point.

One play won't cut it. It's going to take a lot of them, including plenty of them occurring in opposing stadiums that are out of their control.

"It takes one play to change the focus," Cruz said in reference to last year's touchdown, "but it takes a full team effort to get us there where it needs to be."